PREFATORY r OTE
The Lamar Papers printed herein include only those document pre erved by Pr id nt Lamar and his heirs which were acquired by the tate on July 20, 1909. They consist mainly of Lamar' state papers and p r onal correspondence, and of manuscripts collected by him relating to Texan and :Mexican hi tory. In hi own words he int nded to write ".a faithful account of the origin and Tevolutionary struggl s of the Republic, that the children of the patriots, while they are in the full enjoyment of the independence bequeathed to them, may the more watchfully guard and valiantly defend the precious boon purchased with the price of their fathers' blood.'' Since he had this definite purpose in mind, and since he was at successive periods attorney general, secretary of war, vice-president, and president of the Republic of Tex.as, he was ablt to make a collection who e value i readily appreciated. In addition to the material for Texas history, there are a good many papers of interest bearing upon icaragua and Costa Rica during the years 1858 and 1859, the period in which Lamar was nited tate mini. ter to tho e countries. T,amar '. plan for publication were never brought to maturity, though ome "specimen page " of his life of James Long are in this collection. 1'ow that his papers are at last appearing in print, it may not be ami s to trace some of their wanderings. portion of them went to Central Amerio-a ,vith Lamar, and it is highly probable that they were conveyed in the chest which finally brought them to the State Library. The old chest itself is posse. ed of no light historiC'al intere t. Constructed of three-quarter inch pine, bound at the corners with heavy iron braces, and provided with two ponderous lock which take an ~normous key, it seem devi ed to withstand any and all as. aults. One element, however, it could not resist; for in a letter written at Punta Arenas in November, 1858, Lamar complain of a carele s native who delivered hi books and paper "thorouah]y oaked.......... and in a terrible mus ." The · present condition of a good many of the manuscripts would indicate that they were among those which suffered this mishap. At some·tirne in the nineties l\IT's. Lamar sent the paper to Dr. J. W. Palmer of Baltimore to be edited for publication. For some reason Dr. Palmer failed to carry out this plan; and :Mrs. Calder, Lamar's daughter, secur d the papers and depo ited them in the ~ate Capitol in l!JOO. 1 ine years later, as tated above, they were purchased by the State and placed in the State J;;ibrary., The next task, the arranging and cataloguing-of the documents, was undertaken by 1\Ji s Elizabeth H. "\Vest, at that time Archivist, an l at present tate Librarian. This work was complete·d in 1913 &nd the Calenda.r of the Lam,ar Pape;rs appeared as an appendix to the Second Biennial Report of the Texas Library and Historical Com- mission in 1914. ·.- ··· ·. In February, 1919, the present editor wa compiissloµ d to prepare the papers for publication; a work which has progres ed more or les
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